W176 Mercedes-Benz A-Class facelift – full details!

As promised, the W176 Mercedes-Benz A-Class facelift has been unveiled at the on-going Goodwood Festival of Speed. It’s quite a thorough refresh, as you can see, livening up Mercedes’ entry-level model quite a fair bit since its first debut in 2012.

The visual makeover is spread across a few exterior packages. A new Style line takes over from the existing Urban pack (the Malaysian-market A 200 is equipped as such), featuring a very well-rounded look both front and rear. It now has a single-bar Star grille with diamond studs that was previously exclusive to the AMG Line, along with red or green interior highlights.

Next up is the AMG Line equipment pack (fitted to our pre-facelift A 250 Sport). This formula is similar to before, but with a reshaped front bumper and exhausts finishers that are now fully integrated into the rear bumper. Bigger wheels, black wing mirrors and red character exterior lines and interior highlights are present too, just like before.

All new is a Motorsport Edition pack, that adds “petrol green” (Petronas green, of course, celebrating their successful partnership in Formula 1) embellishments both inside and out. The bright hue is added to the front and rear bumper, rear wing (included in the pack), AMG wheels and wing mirrors.

The black leather/Dinamica micro-fibre interior gets dressed up in the same theme too, with green contrast stitching and decorative strips on the seats and safety belts. The Motorsport Edition pack is available for all engine variants from the A 200 and A 200 d upwards.

Regardless of exterior packs, the facelifted A-Class can be had with optional LED High Performance headlights, while the rear light clusters have new internal graphics. An upgraded Collision Prevention Assist Plus (autonomous partial braking) and Attention Assist (extended speed range of 60-200 km/h) active safety systems come standard as well.

A subtly revamped interior is included too. The new-style steering wheel designs are perhaps the biggest change, along with re-profiled instrument cluster layouts, centre console buttons and a 12-colour LED ambient lighting pack. Seat cushion depth adjustment (up to 60 mm fore and aft) is added as standard too.

On the multimedia front, a larger screen (8.0-inch, 1.0-inch bigger than before) is offered as an option, and the system now supports comprehensive smartphone integration – the first Mercedes-Benz to do so. Apple CarPlay and MirrorLink will be available from early 2016 onwards.

Seventeen mechanical options are available, which you can see in detail below. Models concerning us see little change, but the A 250 Sport now gets a small power bump from 211 hp to 218 hp. It’s worth noting that in Europe, the A 250 and A 250 Sport can be had with a six-speed manual transmission (previously DCT only), but that option is unlikely to be offered in Malaysia.

Paired with a new “Launch Assist” function for the 7G-DCT dual-clutch transmission, the A 250 Sport gets to 100 km/h in 6.3 seconds, down from 6.6 seconds for the outgoing car. The A 200, even with unchanged power outputs, reaches the century mark 0.2 seconds quicker, at 8.1 seconds. A new “ECO display” is introduced too, which now assists the driver in maintaining an eco-friendly driving style.

Also available in the A-Class for the first time is Dynamic Select – standard on upper-range variants, as well as models fitted with 7G-DCT, AMG Line or a lowered suspension. Dynamic Select varies the engine, transmission, steering and air-con to suit the driving conditions. Four modes are available: Comfort, Sport, Eco and Individual.

Offered as an optional extra is adaptive damping, which pairs with the Dynamic Select system to swap between Comfort mode with comfortable damping characteristics and Sport mode for a sporty and stiffer damper setup.

We’re definitely looking forward to this one, especially with the adaptive damping option. What about you?

Preferring to drive cars rather than desks, Hafriz Shah ditched his suit and tie to join the ranks of Malaysia’s motoring hacks. A car’s technical brilliance is completely lost on him, appreciating character-making quirks more. When not writing this ego trip of a bio, he’s usually off driving about aimlessly, preferably in a car with the right combination of three foot pedals and six gears.

Never gave that much f**k on this Mercedes hatch before, not until I saw a proper stick shift and three (sporty aluminium/stainless steel) pedals there. Now I was like “HOLYY SHHHTTT…”, just because Mercedes never had manual transmission in their current model lineup.
Now give me the Petronas Motorsport Edition with manual tranny.

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